The device of the present invention is an improvement over drilling mud degassers of the type wherein drilling mud is sprayed into a vacuum chamber to remove a substantial amount of the oxygen present in the drilling mud, such as a drilling mud degasser as shown and descrubed in Burgess U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,946.
When a device of the type disclosed in Burgess U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,946 is used for the deoxygenation of water to be used for a secondary recovery operation, the results are not entirely satisfactory in that single stage centrifugation and spray impacting of the water under vacuum will not remove substantially all of the oxygen normally present in water (typically about 10 to 12 parts per million) such that as much as 3 to 5 parts per million or more of oxygen will remain in the treated water. It is normally considered necessary to provide injection water containing less than about 1 part per million of water, and preferably about 0.01 parts per million of oxygen or less.